Trades Growth Equity
We invest $300k to $2m for a minority stake in your business. You run it. You never have to sell it.
Trucks, hiring, and working capital, so you can add capacity before the revenue shows up to pay for it.
When the shop across town comes up for sale, you can move on it.
Replace loan payments with a long-term investor.
Sell us a portion of your equity and keep the cash personally. You have built something valuable. You can turn part of it into cash without selling the company.
You own the rest and keep running the company.
Preferred equity is a class of ownership that gets paid ahead of ordinary (common) ownership when the company pays out cash or is sold.
No monthly payments and no personal guarantee.
We are not looking to flip your company in three years (and we can’t force you to sell even if we wanted to). We are happy to own a piece of a good business for a long time.
We are a minority investor. You make the calls.
A short list of protections. They are the same ones we ask for when we back an entrepreneur who is buying a business. They exist so a minority owner is treated fairly, not so we can run your business.
In plain English, that means our consent on a short list of major decisions, such as:
What we do not ask for: any operational control.
That is fine with us.
Every owner should ask an investor one question: how do you get your money out? Here is our answer.
Starting in year 7, we have a put option. A put option is our right to ask you to buy back our stake. The price is the market value of our stake at that time, set by a third-party valuation professional we both agree on.
Year 7 is the earliest date, not a deadline. We are long-term investors and may stay in well past it.
A first call with Grant. You tell us about the business and what you would do with the capital. We tell you how we work.
You share your financial statements. We tell you quickly whether we see a fit.
We come visit you.
We verify what we have seen. It costs you nothing.
Documents signed, money wired.
First call to funding is often around a month. It can be a couple of weeks or longer, depending on how quickly you want to move.
Rob Brooks acquired Gary Air, a 30-year-old HVAC company in Sarasota, in June 2025.
We invested when he bought the company. Then we invested again, to fund his purchase of two add-on acquisitions, retire his full SBA loan, and let him take some chips off the table to pay off his mortgage.
Revenue grew from $1.9m to $6.06m
Profit grew from $220k to $1.74m
Trailing twelve months, through October 2026
We want to back more owners like Rob. Read the full Gary Air story
Entrepreneurial Capital is an investment fund, with capital pooled from 80 individuals and families, most of them small business owners. Grant Hensel, who runs it, built a 60-person service business and has invested in 20 more.
No. The accelerator and the investment are separate. You can do the 12-week program first, or come straight to us for capital.
No. We are a minority investor and you stay in full operational control. We ask for a short list of protections, listed above.
A minority percentage, often 10% to 25%. The exact share depends on how much we invest and what the company is worth.
We look at your profit over the last twelve months and apply a multiple to it, meaning we multiply that profit by a number to get a value. We also look at the cash and debt in the business, and the type of work you do. Residential service work is worth more than new construction, for example.
No. It is an ownership stake, structured as preferred equity.
Yes. This is called a “secondary sale,” and we have no issue with it.
Nothing.
That is fine with us. From year 7 on, we can ask you to buy back our stake at a market price.
You sell a minority stake, not the company. You stay in control, and you never have to sell the rest.
Often around a month, but it can be shorter or longer depending on the situation.
HVAC, plumbing, and electrical.
The first step is a call with Grant. No commitment. Bring your questions and your numbers if you have them handy.